Recently passed amendments to fiscal planning law could reduce the defense budget by 28 percent, undermining Taiwan’s military readiness and international support, National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said today.
Wu, Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) and Academia Sinica researcher Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深) were among those who spoke at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee to give remarks on the budget.
The amended Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法), if promulgated, would result in a NT$375.3 billion (US$11.47 billion) reduction of the central government’s budget, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Other countries in the first island chain have increased their defense spending, such as South Korea increasing its budget by 4.5 percent and Japan by 16 percent, Wu said.
However, Taiwan, the nation under the most pressure, may see its budget reduced by 30 percent, he added.
This would affect military readiness and the maintenance of equipment, he said.
As other countries evaluate Taiwan’s resolve to defend itself based on the defense budget, cutting it by 30 percent would send the wrong message, suggesting that it has no intention of defending itself, he said.
In that case, no like-minded countries would help Taiwan, Wu added.
On Dec. 9, foreign media quoted high-level Taiwanese defense officials as saying that China deployed 90 vessels to the East and South China Seas surrounding Taiwan, Wu said.
These reports were confirmed, showing that China had launched large-scale naval training exercises, he added.
These recent drills show China’s ability to mobilize in adverse conditions and simultaneously threaten all nations within the first island chain, meaning that Taiwan must be careful, he said.
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